There are lots of free tools available online to get easy access to the WiFi networks intended to help the network admins and the programmers working on the WiFi systems and we at Team Techworm have picked the top 10 of those for ethical hackers, programmers and businessmen.

Internet is now a basic requirement be it office or home as it is majorly used in smartphones besides computer. Most of the times people prefer to use wireless network LAN which is much easier and cost effective.

It has been observed that the neighborhood WiFi hot-spots are visible on user’s device however one can get access to the same only by cracking password with the sole purpose of using free internet. Also in case of big firms where all the employees are connected through a wireless network admin might want to keep a check on the network traffic and hence even they need tools to crack the network.

Vulnerability in the wireless LAN is majorly due to poor configuration and poor encryption. Poor configuration includes the case of weak password mainly done purposefully by the network admin to check the network traffic. Poor encryption is dangerous as it is related to the 2 security protocols WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (WiFi Protected Access) and WPA is again of 2 types WPA1 and WPA2, WPA was introduced in 2003 as WEP protocol was easy to crack. The tools used to hack the network is used either for the

• purpose of sniffing the network : as is the case of network admins and
• cracking the password: used by programmers to rectify the trouble shooting and by the people who want to use internet free of cost. It has been seen that based on this concept there are around 10 tools together which can be understood to hack wireless LAN.

Aircrack

Most popular wireless password cracking tool, it attacks 802.11a/b/g WEP and WPA. This tool manufacturers also provides tutorial for installation of the tool and its usage for cracking the password. Prior to using this tool it is essential to confirm that the wireless card can inject packets as this is basis of WEP attack. This can be downloaded from: http://www.aircrack-ng.org/

2) Cain & Abel: This tool intercepts the network traffic and cracks the passwords forcibly using crypt-analysis attack methods. It also helps to recover the wireless network keys by analyzing routine protocols. Can be downloaded from : http://www.oxid.it/cain.html

inSSIDer

This tool has been awarded “Best Opensource Software in Networking” and is a paid software available at a cost of $19.99. This is popular scanner for Microsoft Windows and OS X operating systems and can do a lot of tasks which can be helpful for the admins to sniff the network LAN. Can be downloaded from : http://www.inssider.com/

WireShark

This is network protocol analyzer. So again good for the network admins to keep a check on the traffic. Basic requirement is that the user should have a good knowledge of the network protocol only then they can use this tool. Can be downloaded from : https://www.wireshark.org/

CoWPAtty

This tool is an automated dictionary attack tool for WPA-PSK. CoWPatty is simple to use however it is slow as tool uses the password dictionary for generating hack for each word contained in the dictionary by using the SSID. Can be downloaded from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cowpatty/

Airjack

This is a Wi-Fi 802.11 packet injection tool. Mostly used to check for the “man-in-the-middle (MiTm) flaws” in the network and mitigate them. Can be downloaded from : http://sourceforge.net/projects/airjack/

WepAttack

This is an open source Linux tool for breaking 802.11 WEP keys. While working with this tool a WLAN card is required and basically the tool attacks working key using the dictionary words. Can be downloaded from : http://wepattack.sourceforge.net/

OmniPeek

This is again network analyzer tool working only on Windows OS. This tools captures and analyzes the network traffic. The tool can be also used for trouble shooting. Can be downloaded from : http://www.wildpackets.com/products/distributed_network_analysis/omnipeek_network_analyzer

CommView for WiFi

This is for wireless monitoring and protocol analysis. Captured packets can be decoded by user-defined WEP or WPA keys.  This again is mainly used to monitor the WiFi traffic by the professional programmers, protocol admins and even at homes. Can be downloaded from : http://www.tamos.com/products/commwifi/

CloudCracker

This is online password cracking for WPA protected WiFi networks. It is used to crack the passwords by using a dictionary of around 300 million words. Can be downloaded from : https://www.cloudcracker.com/

Most of these tools are free; some of them are for protocol analyzers to monitor the trouble shooting whereas others are for hacking the password for unauthorized internet access also there are tools which use the dictionary words to crack the password.

For the network admins and the professional programmers these tools should be more helpful for understanding the cracking of password and hence helping them professionally.

However, one needs to be cautious when using the tools as this might be an offense to use the tools to crack the passwords and get unauthorized access to the internet in some countries. Also such kind of tools are also used by cyber criminals and terrorists to get easy access for free usage of internet anonymously.

Top 10 Free Wireless Network hacking/monitoring tools for ethical hackers and businesses